Court of Inquiry ordered into terror attack on army camp in Samba

Army on Sunday ordered a Court of Inquiry (CoI) into the militant attack on 16 Cavalry camp in Samba on September 26 in which its four personnel, including a Lt Col, were killed and two others, one of them a Colonel, injured.

"A Court of Inquiry has been ordered. A Colonel rank officer will head the CoI," defence spokesman S N Acharya said here.

The inquiry was part of the standard operating procedure maintained by the Army in such attacks, he said, adding the CoI would be mandated to look into all aspects of the terror strike including security lapses, if any, in the unit.

The 16 Cavalry unit of the Army in Samba district falls under the jurisdiction of 9 corps, headquartered at Yol Cantonment in Himachal Pradesh.

On September 26, three terrorists had stormed a police station in Kathua and then an army camp in Samba, killing 10, including four armymen, in twin 'fidayeen' attacks after they sneaked in from across the border.

Lt Col Bikramjeet Singh, the second-in-command of the unit stationed at the camp was among the four slain Army personnel.

Six persons, including four policemen, were killed in the suicide strike on the police station at Hiranagar in Kathua.

The three heavily-armed terrorists, who were holed up in the camp of the cavalry armoured unit at Samba for several hours after they barged into the officers mess, were killed during the fierce gunfight.